Info

Dave Lukas, The Misfit Entrepreneur_Breakthrough Entrepreneurship

The weekly podcast with serial entrepreneur, Dave M. Lukas, devoted to giving you incredibly useful and unique insight from the world's top entrepreneurs with a focus on their non-traditional methods for achieving success, their Misfit side. Misfit was created to give YOU the breakthrough entrepreneurship strategies and actionable advice to accelerate your success! The show's open format and Misfit 3 concept, combined with Dave's intuitive and engaging interview style quickly uncover each guest's key tools, tactics, and tricks that listeners can start using in their lives right now. Learn more about the show at www.misfitentrepreneur.com and become a member of Misfit Nation by signing up for the Misfit Minute, the FREE weekly email with specific resources from the week's "Misfit 3," and actionable tips and items from the world of Misfit Entrepreneurs. It is delivered every Friday to your inbox!
RSS Feed Subscribe in Apple Podcasts
2024
March
February
January


2023
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2022
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2021
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2020
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2019
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2018
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2017
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2016
December
November
October
September
August
July


All Episodes
Archives
Now displaying: July, 2019

The weekly podcast with serial entrepreneur, Dave M. Lukas, devoted to giving you incredibly useful and unique insight from the world's top entrepreneurs with a focus on their non-traditional methods for achieving success, their Misfit side. Misfit was created to give YOU the best, actionable advice to accelerate your success!

The show's open format and Misfit 3 concept, combined with Dave's intuitive and engaging interview style quickly uncovers each guest's key tools, tactics, and tricks that listeners can start using in their lives right now.

Learn more about the show at www.misfitentrepreneur.com and become a member of Misfit Nation by signing up for the Misfit Minute, the FREE weekly email with specific resources from the week's "Misfit 3," and actionable tips and items from the world of Misfit Entrepreneurs. It is delivered every Friday to your inbox!

Jul 31, 2019

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Aaron Walker. Aaron is an almost 40-year entrepreneur veteran. He started his first business at 18 and sold it by his mid-20’s to a Fortune 500. He went on to start over a dozen other businesses and started Masterminding 20 years ago with people like Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller and others.

This led him to start the Iron Sharpens Iron Mastermind group – one of the most renowned and successful groups of its kind. Aaron is also the author or the best-seller “View from the Top – Living a Life of Significance.”

Aaron has seen it all, done it all, and has succeeded through grit and determination. But what also has made him so successful and one of the biggest reasons I wanted him to come on the show and to share his wisdom with you, is his straight forward authenticity. Aaron teaches in way to easy to understand, learn, and implement. And it’s the lessons he’s learned in building businesses and Masterminds that I've asked him to give you in this episode.

www.ViewFromtheTop.com

Aaron has lived in Nashville his whole life and has built all his businesses from there. He grew up poor in an 800 sq. ft. house with 4 kids. His dad was a general contractor, but not a great business man. Aaron started working at 13 and fell in love with business and decided that he was going to be an entrepreneur. He put in extra studies and night school and graduated at the beginning of his junior year.

He met some people with money to invest and opened his first store. He got married 2 weeks out of High School and he and his wife went on to build several success companies – selling the first one at 27 years old to a F500 company. That gave him the ability to do some other things and set him up financially. He then went back and bought the company he worked for at 13 and grew it by better managing it and better selling the services.

He was 40 years old, working 3 days a week. He had it made. One morning he was driving to the office and a pedestrian stepped out in front of Aaron’s truck and was killed. His life came to a halt. Aaron wasn’t at fault, but when you are responsible for the death of someone, it changed everything.

It devastated Aaron. He couldn’t handle the stress and the knowledge that, even though it wasn’t his fault and he was not arrested or anything, a man died by his truck. It ate him. Over the next few years, he sold the business, took 5 years off, moved to a different area, sought counseling, and really changed most of his life.

One day, his wife came in and told him he had to get going and do something. Aaron had gained almost 50 pounds. So, he did. He started a construction company, built it to great success and sold it at 50, retiring.

At that point, Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller suggested that he coach. He started helping other entrepreneurs and doing Mastermind groups and is now launching his 15th Mastermind in 8 different countries.

What do you think is the reason God/the universe, etc. put you in the situation with killing the pedestrian? What was your biggest takeaway after years of thinking about it?

  • At the time of it happening, you don’t see anything that can come up. You just think your life it over.
  • It was a total blindside that disrupted his entire life for years.
  • The truth is that we are all just one second away from being blindsided in some way.
  • Our life can change in a Nano-second. Here’s what he learned. His legacy would have been – Poor kid form Nashville, makes enough money to retire by the time he is 27 and nobody really cares.
  • Aaron realized that he had no significance. His life was not impacting the lives of others.
  • He asked God for another chance and promised the act outward instead of inward. To that point, it had been mostly inward.
  • Now, he hopes to be remembered by people as “my life was different after having known Aaron.”
  • He thought about it and said that to himself you can do both – you can both success and significance.

Define what significance means to you and for others…

  • Each person must identify what success means.
  • For Aaron, it the ability choose his schedule and how he runs his life and being financially independent. Money is a great thing if it is not your master.
    • Having a clear conscious is critical.
    • We can be content, but not complacent. Don’t ever be complacent but seek contentment in what you do.
    • You also must have meaning and purpose.
    • Lastly, Aaron wants to leave a legacy of wisdom.
  • Significance is a different thing.
  • To Aaron, significance is meeting the needs of others. Focusing on them and being present with them, truly listening.
  • It means taking the time, even when you are busy, to sacrifice and help others.

At the 25 min mark, Aaron talks about “Gratitude Day…”

What are your best principles and thoughts on how to succeed in business?

  • People must get over their sense of fear.
  • The 18/30/60 rule. When you’re 18, you think everybody’s talking about you. When you’re 30, you find out it’s not true. When you’re 60, you don’t care.
  • Read the book The Big Leap and learn how to push through those “upper limit challenges.”
  • You also must have a written plan for how you are going to reach your goal and what you are going to do. Then all you have to do is execute.
  • Focus on the task and not the goal.
  • Establish 3 goals every 4 weeks.
  • Be consistent. It takes a certain length of time to reach critical mass in anything you are doing. Delay gratification.

There is real truth in the statement that you are the sum of the 5 people you spend time with. The wrong people are an anchor around your success – get rid of them. Get people around you that encourage you, hold you accountable, point out your blind spots, give you the truth, and support you and help you.

Great minds talk about ideas, small minds talk about people!

What are some of the key components of a successful Mastermind Group?

  • You must have a genuine group
  • You must have a set of shared core values It must be consistent (weekly, monthly, etc.)
  • It needs to be all encompassing. 60% professional, 30% personal, 10% spiritual is how Aaron’s groups breakdown.

How does someone start a Mastermind group and find the right candidates?

  • You must first decide on your core values and make sure you group is built on them.
  • Nowadays, virtual groups are easier and allow for more transparency.
  • You must determine what it is you want to accomplish with the group and be clear on it.
  • One word of caution for “in person” groups. Go slow and give info over time to see if they can be trusted. Don’t give everything out right away.
  • Decide on the type of group you want to have. Men or Women focused, gender neutral, etc.
  • You can buy the Mastermind Blueprint book from Aaron.

At the 49 min mark, Aaron shares some final pieces of wisdom…

  • When Aaron was growing up, his mom would tell them not to use the word “can’t.”
  • She would say “Can’t couldn’t do it and could did it all.”
  • Build a mindset of “you can.”
  • Find ways to do things. Fear missing an opportunity more than you do failure.
  • Failure is in NOT trying – NOT in being unsuccessful because you tried.

 

Best Quote: “Can’t couldn’t do it and could did it all...”

 

Aaron's Misfit 3:

  1. Show empathy and be empathetic to those around you.
  2. Be transparent to a fault – with a few.
  3. Authenticity is the thing people are starving for the most – be authentic.
Jul 24, 2019

Hello Misfit Nation! Welcome to another edition of "Lessons for Hannah!"

In November of 2016, we introduced a new format that we are putting alongside our regular episodes called “Lessons for Hannah.” Hannah is my daughter and one of the main inspirations for the Misfit Entrepreneur. I wanted to have a place where she could go and learn from her daddy and his Misfit friends throughout her life….even after I am gone. If you haven’t listened to the first episode of "Lessons for Hannah," I urge you to as it gives some more background and tells the amazing story of how Hannah came to be in our lives.

"Lessons for Hannah" are short, very useful, and sometimes comical lessons, that I have learned which I want to share with you and give to Hannah to help in your lives. Because I want Hannah to have these for her life, I’m going to speak as though I am talking directly to her. These episodes are a lot of fun and if you think there is a lesson that we should include in these episodes, please don’t hesitate to send it over to us at support@misfitentrepreneur.com. We’d love to share it.

This week’s Lesson for Hannah

Hannah, I want to share with you a perspective and way of thinking that is not very popular or prominent in today’s world – but it is a secret of the most successful and for living a great life.

We live in an instant society. Most of everything we want, or need is at our fingertips with the push of a button. So, as you can imagine, when something takes time or is not instantly available it can be frustrating. Believe it not, there was a time not long ago where we went to the video store to rent a movie to watch for the evening. That idea seems so foreign and like it was so long ago – but 10 years ago we were doing it. Now almost all those companies are out of business and we have every movie we could ever want on our smart phone and we have changed as a people and society. With all this at our finger tips, we get angry if it doesn’t download fast enough! As I’ve often said, “We stop the microwave with 3 seconds left – we can’t even wait 3 seconds anymore…”

This “instantness” has conditioned us to have little patience and to not practice the secret I want to share with you. The secret? The ability to play the long game and practice long term thinking. Almost every successful Misfit Entrepreneur that I have interviewed on this show, at some point, during the episode, talks about how they had to wait for their success. How they had to play the long game. How they had to keep going when everyone else wanted them to stop or was stopping. How they didn’t know if they would ever reach their goal, but they knew that if they kept at it, eventually they would find some form of success.

It can take a long time for the big opportunity or big break to happen. Recently, I was reminded of this when one of my smaller side businesses, one that I have been active in for over a decade, finally got the opportunity we had been waiting for. We have a good product and have had some small success with a loyal set of users, but what we were missing was the right marketing partner to really take it to mass levels. And because it is a side business, I am only able to put a certain level of effort into it vs. the level of full-time focus I have on our much larger businesses. There has been enough time to make sure the product was excellent and to do a great job with it, but I was always looking for the right partner or partners to help it realize it’s potential. For over 10 years, I stayed with it, yes because I enjoy it, but also because I knew the potential, and in the last few months, through a simple coincidence, I was introduced to the partner I had been looking for. They immediately saw the value and now we are embarking on realizing the product’s true potential and value. Overnight, this could become a 7-figure business and by partnering, I am able to put about the same amount of effort in that I have been doing, which also very exciting. It is always magic to find leverage between great partners.

Now, I can tell you – most people won’t stick with something for over 10 years, being patient, and looking for the right alignment to come together, but I learned this lesson early in Grasp Technologies. When we started the company, both uncle Erik and I promised each other that we would focus on long term thinking and ride it out as we knew that if we did, we could make things a success. And we, along with our incredible team, over the years, did. I have a feeling this other business will now prove that out as well.

This is the power of term thinking and long term patience. You can accomplish just about anything if you take this view. And that doesn’t mean that things won’t happen fast either. I might have waited 10 years to find the partner, but within 6 weeks, we were going to market together. So, some things will happen quickly, but maintaining that steady pace long term is the underpinning that reaps benefits. As they say, it’s more about the journey than the destination.

There is strategy in that you have to be in the right market or at least understand the changing trends and keep up with them – a thing the video store businesses did not do. In fact, I would argue that the largest video store chain, Blockbuster, did not follow the rule of long-term thinking. Instead, they were very short-sighted on profits today instead of setting themselves up to own the future. In fact, the story goes that Blockbuster could have acquired Netflix for $50 million before it really got going. Now they are out of business and Netflix is worth billions. Wow, that may go down as one of the biggest business blunders of all time.

It is not just business, but life as well. “Great things come to those who wait,” has been a phrase echoed through time. I don’t necessarily agree with that. If I could rephrase it, I would say “Great things come to those who are patient, take consistent action, and not lose sight of their end goal.” But, the truly great things in life take time. It took me years to find your mother. And in turn, it took us years to find you. You and mommy are the greatest things in my life to date, and every moment that it took to bring us together, not matter how long, was worth it. So, understand that it’s worth it to wait and take action toward your goal in life too. The principle and secret is universal and has been echoed since the beginning of time.

Hannah, learn and put the power of long-term thinking to work for you and you will see the benefits throughout your life.

I love you,

Daddy

Jul 17, 2019

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneurs are Jeff Bishop and Jason Bond. Jeff and Jason are the co-founders of the trading and investing education powerhouse, Raging Bull. Jeff and Jason started out in completely opposite directions. Jason went from school teacher and being $250,000 in debt to becoming a self-made millionaire trader and Jeff failed building 4 business, even trying his hand at being an online poker player, and became a multi-millionaire at age 35.

Together, Jeff and Jason have taken Raging Bull from idea to an over $50 million a year business teaching people how to invest and create financial freedom worldwide.

I’m really excited about this episode, as a lot of you know that I have my own trading and investing strategy that I teach and I’ve wanted to bring on some of the most successful traders in the world to open your eyes to the possibilities that exist for you – as well as have you learn from two guys in the trenches every day of not only trading, but building a massive business.

www.RagingBull.com

Jeff and Jason started in totally different paths. Jeff started in Texas and Jason was in New York. About 15 years ago, after failing in a few businesses, Jeff got started in internet marketing. He always thought that working online would be his path to success. He was writing online articles on financial websites and built a few financial related businesses when he came across Jason. Jason was a teacher that hard started a small trading education business and reached out to him to collaborate.

Jason was a school teacher working on his 2nd master’s degree to be a principal. His wife was a teacher as well. He was 7 years in when it really hit home that with the $250k in debt that they had and the minimal raises they were getting, that it wasn’t going to cut it. He started dabbling in stocks and quickly lost some money, so he started searching for someone to teach him how to trade. That is how he found Jeff. He had seen him as a professional trader online.

Jeff and Jason made a deal that if Jeff taught him how to be a professional trader, then Jason would use his skills as a teacher to teach others how to do so.

It took 3-4 years to get things off the ground together, but then turned into something big.

Jason, you went from being a school teacher deep in debt to building this $50 million+ business with Jeff in 3-4 years, what have you both learned about building a successful business that is critical for entrepreneurs to know?

  • It is a lot of hard work, but it is a commitment to do it every day more than when you got started.
  • You need to be in the right space for your skillset.
  • If you are looking to focus on a business, there are 3-4 areas where you can really make great money:
    • First, any area where you can benefit someone’s kids and help them
    • Second, health and vitality.
    • Third, Finance and how to make more/protect their money.
    • Fourth, nowadays, for many, pets are like kids.
  • Jeff and Jason found a niche in small cap stocks and built a brand around it.
  • They were able to resonate with thousands of investors in this niche and that is what built the business. You don’t need millions to buy your product – you need to provide a great solution to a hungry niche and serve them well.
  • Communication is very important. Being able to simplify complex things, make then easy to understand, and teach in a an easy way so people can learn about your product or service is extremely important. The way you communicate has a big impact on your success.

At the 12 min mark, Jeff talks about how the internet changed the game and allowed them to really carve out the niche.

What is your best advice for entrepreneurs starting out today?

  • You will have times where you will be very successful and times where you will not.
  • Your first business will most likely not be the homerun.
  • You must be open in life to have the failures and set yourself up to be able to handle them.
  • For example, if you are going to take on a business, work to keep your personal debt low so you can weather any storms you go through getting off the ground.
  • When you are in failure, you do need to know it is ok, but pressing on is the tough part. Your resolve will be a big part of your success. 
  • “You only have to get rich once. You can fail a lot of times, but if you get rich one time that is all you need.” - as long as you stay smart and respect it.
  • You will eventually find the one thing that works because opportunities are abundant in this world.

Can you talk about the mental side of succeeding as an entrepreneur?

  • Jason talks about how important education and preparing yourself is. He and his wife used Dave Ramsey’s course on how to get out of debt.
  • Going through this to get to a point to where he could quit his teaching job taught him a lot of things.
  • Self-education is critical, but so is looking for people to mentor you and model yourself after.
  • Jason talks about how Jeff was good for showing him how to live a cash lifestyle and staying out of debt.
  • Disciplining yourself and delaying gratification is one of the hardest things to do, but it is something you must do.

At the 20 min mark, we have a discussion about the ways people look at wealth.

  • Talk about how you’ve built your community of clients…
  • You have to go above and beyond to stand out.
  • You can fool someone once, but that is it.
  • If you are going to do it right, you have to prove yourself so you clients continue to buy from you.
  • That means you have to deliver on your promises and in your products.
  • You have to give great value
  • Showing clients what they were doing in real time with their own money resonated well with clients. They put their money where their mouth was.
  • Look at it from the perspective that you want to earn people’s business for the rest of their lives. Put the client first.

At the 32 min Mark, Jeff and Jason talk about the systems they have created that help grow and sustain their business.

  • You have to create a great culture. At RB, almost every employee has some aspect of their pay tied to sales.
  • To get good lead flow, you have to be aggressive and invest in marketing.
  • Online marketing is something you have to be doing and figure out. Even if it is starting with $50-$100.
  • No matter how good your product is, the odds are extremely low that you will get great growth just by word of mouth.
  • One way to market is to go where the bigger competitors aren’t. Don’t go head to head in all the markets. Find a way to stand out or use a different medium
    • For example, YouTube has been great for RB because it is not leveraged by the competition, so they have gotten some great return on investment.
  • No matter what, these companies like Google, etc. will make their money – so don’t think you can “beat” them. Use them as the tools that they are.
  • Facebook has not been as good for them. Other channels have worked better for them.
  • Biggest lesson – Bet on yourself and put your chips on the table investing in your business. The reinvestment of profits back in is critical. Delay gratification.

What does it really take to be a successful trader? What is most important for people to know?

  • The smoke and mirrors confuses people.
  • The next best thing is always going to be there and we all want to buy into the latest and greatest, when the more important thing is to find something that is good and learn and stick with it. Jumping from strategy to strategy is not the way to succeed.
  • You have to put in the work.
  • The quick and easy way doesn’t exist – there are lot of people that will “sell” you that, but in reality, you have to learn, do the work, and focus.
  • Stock trading is like consistently working out. You have to be disciplined.
  • You cannot become successful just by copying someone else – but you can by learning from them and taking what works best for you and making it your own.
  • A good trader is like a great artist. The really good ones standout.

At the 54 min mark, Jason and Jeff explain the world of penny stocks and how it works as well as insight into trading options…

Biggest trading mistake and the lessons learned from it?

  • Jeff – going too big and gambling too big on stocks or options. Being so sure and even doubling down on something that went against you.
  • Stocks can always go lower or higher than you ever think.
  • Jason – Position sizing. Making sure not to put too much on one trade. Risk tolerance is important.

#1 Quality traders should develop?

  • Jason – Discipline
  • Jeff – Knowing your risk tolerance and listening to it.

 

Best Quote: You cannot become successful just by copying someone else- but you can by learning from them and taking what works best for you and making it your own.

 

Jeff and Jason's Misfit 3:

Jeff

  1. Success is just a thing in life – it’s not THE thing.
  2. The relationships you build are way more valuable than any money you can make.
  3.  Success is also important and is a measuring stick in life, so we should strive to compete and win.

Jason

  1. Bet on yourself.
  2. Believe in yourself and your potential.
  3. Give yourself permission to get rich.
Jul 10, 2019

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur Tamara Loehr. She is a serial entrepreneur and creative powerhouse. She is the owner of Mitara Impressa, one of the most renowned digital advertising agencies in Australia. She is a real estate investor, singer/songwriter, who went by the name Claire and was featured throughout Australia and the world. She retired from music at 30. After retiring, she met her husband and began a family and then started her first business in the wellness space growing the business to over $10 million in less than 2 years with no capital investment.

She went on to go through the Entrepreneur Masters Program at MIT and then with the help of her mentors went to her next level investing and leading global businesses. She invested in Gutsii and vegan haircare brand, Hot Tresses, and oversaw the companies growing into hundreds of stores in 6 weeks of their launch date.

She then started Dollar Beauty Tribe. And most recently has released a new book called Balance is B.S. which empowers female breadwinners to play a bigger game in business. Throughout her life, Tamara has basically done the opposite of what everyone thought or expected her to do and it has led to amazing success and incredible impact and I squeeze every bit of wisdom and business advice I can from her in this episode.

www.Loehrblend.com

Tamara leads with passion and likes to evolve constantly. From the passion comes the business. Whenever she chooses something – it needs to serve her and have an impact. She thinks every 5-10 years you should re-invent yourself, not changes your values, but re-invent and evolve yourself.

As she says, “In her 20’s she wanted all the “stuff” and the big office,” and nowadays she wants nothing to do with that.

You grew up in the outback in AU…How did you get to become an entrepreneur?

  • Tamara is very creative and has always been an artist.
  • To Tamara, an entrepreneur must be creative to solve problems. She grew up in the arts, music, painting, etc.

She got a fine arts degree in university. She is a painter by trade. At the same time, she was writing music and that got her into the business. She began to travel. She then went into marketing and started her first business helping companies grow. She wouldn’t just give them a brand, but figure out the why, how to disrupt, etc.

She was very good, and someone told her she should do it for her own products which lead her to some of the businesses she still has today. Over the years, she has really figured out who she is in that she is a creative who doesn’t want to deal with the heavy details. She likes to be in early stage start up and build them to a point, hand them off to be run, and then go to the next one.

Out of everything you have seen and done, what is the one key ingredient entrepreneurs need to succeed?

  • They must stick to their values – even when it ruffles feathers.
  • Having values means that you need to show up as yourself.
  • They don’t conform.
  • It is tough because you may not fit in with what the world says you should be, but in that is where you genius is. Embrace it.

“The last thing most people work on is themselves, where it should be the opposite. You must operate at the top of your game. And when you have the energy and you show up and you are clear on your vision – that’s where the magic happens. That’s when magic happens to Misfits!”

To help you in working on yourself, Tamara asks you to think about and define out your values, beliefs, and “non-negotiables.” What are those for you?

  • Knowing these will help to keep you in alignment

At the 15 min mark, Tamara tells us about her book, Balance is B.S.

  • The book started as part of a legacy project as part of the Birthing of Giants Program.
  • Tamara is passionate about helping more females get into entrepreneurship and business.
  • Tamara noticed as she climbed the ladder and grown businesses to $1 million, then $10 million, $50 million and so on, she found less and less women.
  • When she asked women as to why they have not pushed to higher levels, one of the typical responses is that they did not want to sacrifice their family, etc.
    • This gave Tamara pause as she has built massive companies without sacrificing her family and time with her boys – it’s one of her core values.
  • She asked more questions and dug deeper. She found that the bigger the business one built, the more actual freedom and flexibility that they have vs. a small business.
  • The book helps people learn and understand themselves and then shows them the possibility of how they can play a bigger game and stay to true to their values.
  • The other reason for the book is to make a bigger impact and foster entrepreneurship around the world.
  • The best thing an entrepreneur can do is grow a very large, profitable business – and from that give and share with the world.

What are some of the myths that hold us back?

  • It all stems from social norms and “what we are supposed to be.”
  • We must create what we are for ourselves based on what is important and what our core values are.
  • We need to say “no” instead of showing up and trying to please everyone and be a certain way because that is what we are supposed to be.
  • It is ok to be selfish with your core values.
  • Once you realize this and understand it, you can then empower others to do the same.
  • You can “blend” your work and personal life and do it the way you want. Blend instead of balance.
  • Put it all together and set the boundaries – then go.

Talk to us more about blending instead of balancing…

You must create a space where you can blend is very important

Making sure you communicate and people understand your values and what is important, so they know how to help you blend.

  • Give yourself and give others the permission to blend. Lead by example.
  • You must extend the same things that you give yourself to those you lead.
  • And there is some stuff that you have to do, no matter what – you may not like it, but you have to do it. Schedule it and get it done.
  • Just figure out how to blend it in.
  • Every time you are torn between two things, ask “How do I bring these 2 things together and blend them?” And don’t apologize for it.
  • Get creative and be open about things – don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Can you give us your top piece of advice from the other areas of the book?

  • Self is all about how you serve yourself and how to establish your values, boundaries, and expectations. Everything starts in yourself and flows from there.
  • You will need to learn to renegotiate some things.
  • Personal is about how you want to journey in life and how you want to show up to live the life you have always wanted to.
  • Business is about choice and re-inventing your life in the way that makes sense. You re-invent your life, but not the tools you learn along the way. You take the tools and utilize them to help you create the life and work to serve you. Really knowing what serves you is important.

What are the principles and strategies that you use to build companies?

  • Tamara uses the same strategy for every business she starts or comes into.
  • They bring their values to every business they work with.
  • First, they look at the “why” of the business.
  • Then they look at every aspect of the business and ask “How can we do it better?”
  • They look at who the business is serving and the impact it can have in the world and ask, “How do we get there as quickly as possible?”
  • But, you must be careful to no overcomplicate things.
  • Tamara prefers to go deep and narrow and do one thing extremely well and take market share in that area. To increase revenue, you should be hyper focused on the best area to gain it.
  • Then after you have gone deep and narrow, gained market share, increased the revenue, etc., you can go wider.
  • The next part is to be relentless and not let yourself get distracted from the mission.
  • At the same time, you should do the opposite of what the industry expects
  • You must be the best in class in what you do. Don’t compromise. ​

At the 50 min mark, Tamara talks about how and why she built Dollar Beauty Tribe.

 

Best Quote: “The last thing most people work on is themselves, where it should be the opposite. You must operate at the top of your game. And when you have the energy and you show up and you are clear on your vision – that’s where the magic happens. That’s when magic happens to Misfits”

 

Tamara's Misfit 3:

  1. Family is core. You are not a success in business if you fail at home.
  2. Regularly detox. The mind, the body, and your environment. Cleanse your mind, yourself of bad habits, and make sure to clear your environment of negative influences.
  3. Do the opposite. Own being a 1 percenter. You are different and need to own it.
Jul 3, 2019

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Moe Abbas. Moe is the founder of GenM, a sponsor of the show and an absolutely amazing company that pairs students looking for internship credits to graduate with the companies looking for them to intern. At nineteen years old, he founded his first two companies. Since then he has founded or co-founded over a dozen startups which over the last 10 years have employed thousands, in industries ranging from real estate, construction, web development, marketing and mobile applications.

At 26 years old, Moe won the NKBA 30 under 30 award and was the youngest recipient ever of the OBJ 40 Under 40 Award. He also won the Immigrant Entrepreneur award from the City of Ottawa and is the youngest ever Board Director for both the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce and the Better Business Bureau of Eastern Ontario.

He is also the Co-Founder of the Canadian General Contractors Group of companies. In 5 years, he led the group from a basement office into Canada’s leading residential design build company with 20 million in sales and design centers across the country. Needless to say, Moe has seen and done it all and there is a lot we can learn from him.

@RealMoeAbbas on Instagram ​

www.GenM.co/misfit

Moe immigrated to Canada from Lebanon with his family as war refugees. They were very poor and he grew up in subsidized housing. There were 5 children and his dad worked and was gone much of the time. Moe was a very curios child and liked to explore. This was fostered by his mother.

When he got into his teens, he wasn’t happy with where he was. He was overweight, poor, and got to a point of rock bottom. He decided to do something about it. He started with what he could control – his body. He started going to the gym every day, changed his diet, and became very fit. This transformed him, not just physically, but mentally as well, and showed him how he could create the world he wanted for himself.

At 18, he hustled his way into fixing phone lines in the Palm Beach area. Doing this job opened his eyes to real wealth as he worked at mansions with yachts, etc. He was surprised that what a lot of the older, wealthy valued most was their youth and health. It taught him that money is just a tool and altered a perspective.

He went back to Canada with a new ambition to create wealth and the life he wanted through entrepreneurship. He began to self-educate and immerse himself into studying business and entrepreneurship. He started some landscaping companies, sold them, and found his way into construction – even though he knew nothing about it. He lost his money on his first job and didn’t even get paid.

Moe pushed through it, learned from it, and ended up doing a million dollars in sales in the next year, basically running his business out of Starbucks.

Your mother was a big influence in your life, what is the #1 lesson that you took away from her?

  • Give. Moe’s mom owned nothing. She never bought new clothes for herself. She instead gave of herself to others.
  • She would volunteer to wash the bodies of the dead to help prepare them for burial.
  • She would bring people off the street to live with the 7 family members in their tiny apartment to help them.
  • She gave everything for Moe and his brothers and sisters, including her life. She ended up getting MS and lost her ability to move.
  • You can always GIVE. You can always make a difference.

Talk to us about the power of suffering…How has that been an ally in helping you succeed?

  • Suffering is something that you have to go through to be successful.
  • You will lose. You will lose deals, you will lose money, you will lose relationships, you will lose in a lot of ways.
  • People quit because “it gets too hard,” the pain becomes not worth it because a person’s personal “pain threshold” has been reached.
  • Imagine being able to increase your “pain threshold” indefinitely
  • There is really no limit to the amount of suffering that you can endure
    • To illustrate this, Moe uses an example of Monk’s seeking enlightenment sitting on a concrete floor for 12 hours a day for years on end.
    • They suffer for an extreme amount of time, eat one meal per day, stay in silence, no air conditioning, etc.
  • As you build your pain tolerance, you increase you ability to suffer through the bigger challenges and this allows you to grow and attain new heights. It allows you to level up.
  • You should focus on “controlled suffering,” which is suffering that you understand and know that if you go through it will get you to a bigger and better result.

Talk to us about routines and how important they are to keeping you on top of your game….

  • How you do anything is how you do everything
  • Good habits are critical to success
  • Most of the habits we build are done unconsciously – that can be good and bad.
  • If you can “consciously” design habits over the long term, there is no better return on investment!
  • You can design and build almost anything in your life, but designing the habits that lead to that outcome.
  • At the 24 min mark, Moe talks about his personal morning habit:
  • Sauna for 30 mins every morning. Big health benefits have been proven for sauna.
    • Stretching/Yoga while in sauna to make use of that time.
    • Boxed breathing (https://www.healthline.com/health/box-breathing#tips-for-beginners)

Explain your thoughts on “State, Story, and Strategy…”

  • The most important thing is your state.
  • The story is whatever identity you have for yourself. The story you tell yourself becomes your identity, so be very careful what you tell yourself.
    • Moe shares the story he tells himself
  • You will become the environment your surround yourself with
  • Write your story down and read it each week
  • Back to state – your state of mind sets the tone for your success every day
  • Make your emotions such as anger your tools to use. Don’t let them control you. You must learn to control them and use them to your advantage – channel the emotion to make a difference for you.
  • Your body is a vessel, a tool for your mind and your will to manifest. ​

Anything else we should know?

  • Competition is very important!
  • We should compete a lot more often than we do.
  • We don’t because we are afraid of what happens if we don’t win. Who cares. Compete!
  • When you lose in competition, what do you really lose? Nothing, really…
  • Competition is a learning cycle that allows you to get better and grow.
  • And you could also win….
  • You don’t know if you are winning until you are tested.
  • It also healthy to compete against yourself. Every day is a chance for you to be better than yesterday.

 

Best Quote: “As you build your pain tolerance, you increase your ability to suffer through the bigger challenges and this allows you to grow and attain new heights. It allows you to level up.”

 

Moe's Misfit 3:

  1. Go first. For some reason, we don’t like to go first on things. Go first. You lose nothing. Put your pride aside and lead.
  2. Good artists copy. Great artists steal. You do not have to re-invite the wheel. Take the things that work from others and use them in your life.
  3. You are the sum of the 5 closest people you surround yourself with. Choose wisely.
1